In Colossians 3:18-19, God instructs the husband to love his wife and the wife to submit to and respect her husband. This is a command and it is regardless of how they each feel at the moment. Why does God need to make these commands? Because they are not our natural responses to conflict and they are the very things that we long for the most: Love and Respect.

The Apostle Paul encourages us to put on the character qualities that show that we have been made new in Jesus Christ. Those qualities include a compassionate heart, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with each other, forgiveness, and finally the unifying characteristic that binds all of these together – love. Love is like a sash, tie, or belt that binds or holds all of these articles of clothing on is love. Love is the tie that binds. It is the reason behind all of these others. It is the thing that produces unity. It is how we are identified as believers or followers of Jesus Christ.